At least 30 civilians were reported killed yesterday in a massive explosion in northeast Syria and as state media blamed a helicopter gunship crash on an accident while monitors said rebels shot it down.
Dozens more people were wounded in the blast at a petrol station in the northeastern village of Ain Issa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Activists said it was an air strike.
“At least 30 people were killed and 83 were injured, although unconfirmed sources say the number of dead was actually more than 50,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
“Lawyers and activists in the area say the blast was caused by aerial bombardment,” the Britain-based watchdog added.
Activists said the petrol station in the village of Ain Issa, in Raqa province, was hit by a warplane.
“The petrol station is the only one that is still open to customers in the area, and it was packed,” a media activist who identified himself as Abu Muawiya said via Skype. “It was hit by a fighter jet.
“The only reason why it would strike the petrol station with a jet is to kill the highest number of people possible,” he charged. It was impossible to verify the claim.
The military helicopter that went down outside Damascus crashed after an accident with a civilian aircraft, state TV said.
“This morning’s helicopter crash resulted from an accident in the air when the helicopter’s rotor clipped the tail of a Syrian Air plane carrying 200 passengers,” it said.
Earlier, the Observatory reported the helicopter had been downed by rebels following a series of explosions in the restive town of Douma, northeast of the capital.
Violence also raged in Aleppo, Syria’s commercial hub in the north, where dozens were killed or wounded in fierce shelling, the Observatory, which relies on the accounts of activists on the ground, said.
The Observatory said the death toll in the 18-month uprising had surpassed 29,000 people, the vast majority of them civilians.
On the political front, diplomats from more than 60 nations and the Arab League met in The Hague to toughen and improve coordination of sanctions against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.